Homemade Chilli Sauce

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This Homemade Chilli Sauce is packed with fresh chillies – it’s hot, spicy and utterly addictive. Guaranteed to add a fiery kick to your favourite meals.

Simply the best hot chilli sauce, perfect for chilli lovers !

Made with fresh ingredients you can make your own Hot Chilli Sauce from scratch in around 1 hour and 30 minutes. My hot sauce recipe blends chillies, fresh tomatoes and spices that really deliver on flavour and heat.

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With an easy hands on time of maybe 20 minutes you’ll have the best hot sauce that’s perfect for topping, dipping or cooking.

It’s a larder staple in our house and a must have with kebabs, pizzas or on a burger. I hope my tried and tested chilli sauce recipe will become a staple in your home too.

Our family loves chillies and when we moved to France I started to grow them, experimenting each year with different varieties of chillies.

There was often a bumper chilli crop which meant a batch of my Scotch Bonnet Sauce for our chilli head friends and OH, plenty of my prize winning Chilli Jam and even a bag full of chillies in the freezer.

Whilst in France, a local Mexican restaurant used to buy and sell my sauce and batches of it even travelled to Paris to my neighbour’s brother-in-law’s restaurant. A key part of the sauce’s popularity was its bright fresh colour and flavour, both of which sprang from using fresh home grown chillies.

Why you’ll love this recipe

Here’s why this is the Best Homemade Chilli Sauce recipe with outstanding results every time.

• You can make as spicy or mild as you like – remove the fibrous tissue and seeds of the cayenne chillies for a milder sauce. Use extra hot chillies such as Scotch Bonnet or Habenero chilli peppers for a Scotch Bonnet Hot Pepper Sauce. Although they are very hot, they also have a unique fruity taste which we love. They are a very bushy plant and grow slower than a cayenne chilli.
• Easy to make with readily available ingredients and tastes so much better than shop bought.
• Perfect Christmas Gift – Homemade Chilli Sauce is so easy, why not rustle up an extra batch ? Then you’ll have a delicious edible homemade gift for your chilli loving friends.

What equipment do I need ?

• A stainless steel preserving pan or large wide based saucepan
• Large saucepan lid (or similar) big enough to cover preserving pan
• A plastic or stainless steel funnel
• A spice bag or muslin cloth and string
• A ladle
• A handheld / stick blender
• 3 x 250ml sterilised bottles or jars

What ingredients do I need ?

You only need 6 ingredients to make Homemade Chilli Sauce.

• Fresh tomatoes – fresh ripe tomatoes in season are best. You can substitute a 400g (12 oz) can of good quality plum tomatoes. This will affect the final colour of the sauce, making it darker.
• Chillies – I’ve used Cayenne chillies to give a medium hot heat – I’ve left the seeds and fibrous tissue in but if you prefer less heat you can remove them. The Cayenne chilli peppers give a fiery heat without being overpowering although you can use a different variety of chilli pepper if you prefer – a good tip is to taste the chilli before using to check how hot it is.
• Apple cider vinegar – I like to use organic cider vinegar.
• Caster sugar. I prefer to use caster / superfine sugar as it dissolves more easily.
• Salt – I use a fine sea salt / Kosher salt.

Pickling spice – I use my own mix which I make in a big batch but you can pick up a jar from most supermarkets or online. If you can’t get hold of pickling spice, this is a small batch substitute :

• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice berries
• 1 bay leaf
• A 2 cm piece of cinnamon broken from a stick so it’s more of a sliver (I use a whole stick broken into small pieces in my bulk mix )

How to make Homemade Chilli Sauce

Making a hot chilli sauce couldn’t be more straightforward – just follow these easy steps for the best homemade chilli sauce.

• Skin, deseed and roughly chop your tomatoes.
• Roughly slice your chillies – deseed them if you want less heat in the sauce.

TOP TIP: Be careful when handling very hot chillies, particularly scotch bonnets or Thai bird’s eye chillies. It’s best to wear gloves as eyes wiped with chilli fingers can burn and smart for hours!

• Add the tomatoes and chillies to your pan along with half the cider vinegar.
• Place on a medium heat and simmer until soft.
• Remove your pan from the heat and give the mixture a whizz with a stick/hand blender. Be careful, the mixture is hot and you certainly don’t want chilli in your eyes !

• Add the sugar and salt and place back on the heat, give it a good stir and add the spice bag.
• Leave to simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.

• Add the remaining vinegar and simmer until the mixture has reduced down to a nice thick sauce.

• Pour into hot sterilised bottles or jars using a funnel.

• Heat process by placing bottles into a large saucepan or boiling water canner filled with enough water so that bottles are ¾ covered. Bring water up to boiling point and simmer for 15 mins.

Ways to use Chilli Sauce

Homemade Chilli Sauce is a larder staple in our house and ends up in and on all sorts of food.

Use like Tabasco, it will add a definite kick to any dish – works really well on a pizza !

• Tastes great as a Kebab Shop Chilli sauce with our Homemade Chicken Kebabs.
• Liven up chicken or other meats and use in a marinade.
• If you run out of fresh chillies for a dish, try a tablespoon of Homemade Chilli Sauce instead of a chilli.
• Tastes great in fajitas and adds a zing to a salsa.
• Add a dash to your favourite burger, hot dog or wrap.

How long does it keep ?

Once bottled and sealed, Homemade Chilli Sauce will keep for up to a year stored in a cool dry place.
Once opened, use within eight weeks.

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More Homemade Edible Gift Recipes

• Homemade Sweet Chilli Jam
• Tomato and Chilli Chutney
• Spicy Courgette Chutney
• Homemade Stem Ginger

I’m entering Homemade Chilli Sauce into Credit Crunch Munch created by Camilla from FAB FOOD 4 ALL & HELEN OVER AT FUSS FREE FLAVOURS & hosted this month by HELEN.

And linking to Festive Food Fridays at Taming Twins and Kerry Cooks